Nowadays, mobile electronic devices are widespread. This type of electronic device is usually driven by a battery device including a battery and a battery protection IC for protecting the battery mounted thereon. Through series connection or parallel connection of a plurality of batteries, the battery device generates a power supply voltage of a mobile electronic device, which is required for the mobile electronic device, and the mobile electronic device is operated by the power supply voltage thus generated.
Here, there is proposed a battery protection IC adaptable to any number of batteries connected in series. In the proposed battery protection IC, a plurality of battery protection ICs for protecting a block of a plurality of batteries are used, and the plurality of battery protection ICs are connected in cascade to communicate with each other (for example, see Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1: JP 2005-117780 A